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Objective To determine how length of anticoagulation and clinical presentation of venous thromboembolism influence the risk of recurrence after anticoagulant treatment is stopped and to identify the shortest length of anticoagulation that reduces the risk of recurrence to its lowest level.

Design Pooled analysis of individual participants’ data from seven randomised trials.

Setting Outpatient anticoagulant clinics in academic centres.

Population 2925 men or women with a first venous thromboembolism who did not have cancer and received different durations of anticoagulant treatment.

Main outcome measure First recurrent venous thromboembolism after stopping anticoagulant treatment during up to 24 months of follow-up.

Results Recurrence was lower after isolated distal deep vein thrombosis than after proximal deep vein thrombosis (hazard ratio 0.49, 95% confidence interval 0.34 to 0.71), similar after pulmonary …